This ambitious novel about the life of the remarkable woman Tabitha Basket—from her Victorian childhood to the end of World War II—is, according to the author herself, an attempt to "reveal historical changes not only on the surface, but in their roots as well." Social and domestic changes in English society, against the backdrop of British history in the first half of the twentieth century, are presented in the novel in a direct and vivid way as a backdrop for the captivating life of the heroine and those around her.